The original flume was flat on the bottom, while the new design was V-shaped to keep the ties from dragging on the bottom. The company also improved the flume's design. The company continued operations at the Sheep Creek camp, extending the flume from its lower end, where it had emptied into the Tongue, further northeast and downstream through the Tongue River Canyon about five more miles to where the river became more level. McShane and Company bought out Starbird and Hall. 10, 1893, and emptying into the Tongue River, was four and one-third miles long. The Sheep Creek flume, completed on Sept. Then the water was shut off while the next section was built. When one section of the flume was finished, lumber for the next was floated down to the end. The flume, constructed of 2-inch, tongue-and-groove boards to minimize leaking, was built in stages.
The first workers' camp, for both tie cutters and flume builders, was located at the head of Sheep Creek Canyon, which drains into the Tongue River approximately 13 miles southwest of Ranchester, Wyo. Both the flume and the ties were made of pine, an abundant resource in the Bighorn Mountains. They decided to build a flume-a wooden trough many miles long, on trestles when necessary, sometimes anchored to granite cliffs with iron bolts, which would carry a volume of water at a steady grade and with it, the ties. However, the best trees for tie cutting grew high in the mountains, far from the railroad, and Starbird and Hall needed an efficient means of transport down the mountain. Hall, had contracted with the B & M to supply 1.6 million ties. By March 1893, two Omaha men, Dan Starbird and Thomas B. The Rockwood camp was part of an operation begun in 1893 when the Burlington and Missouri Railroad was building its line from Sheridan, Wyo., north to Montana. McShane and Company, which had built the camp more than four years earlier, in spring 1895.
#Old flume trail plus
Most of the buildings, plus thousands of ties at the Rockwood camp burned, leaving only two cabins and a schoolhouse to J.H. Miraculously, no one from the camp was hurt, though one man later died from pneumonia from standing in the pond to escape the fire. 1910, boasted a sawmill, cabins, bunkhouses, a cookhouse, barn and blacksmith's forge. The tie camp of Woodrock in the Bighorn Mountains, ca. It was a hazardous journey: In some places, the flume hung 300 feet above the bottom of the canyon, and burning debris had fallen on the footboard, destroying a short section of it. While the women and children fled, the men stayed behind to throw personal belongings into a nearby pond behind an earthen dam built as a holding place for the ties on the north fork of the Tongue.Ībout 25 women and children walked down the mountain on a footboard attached to a wooden flume, or waterway, built to float ties down the canyon to their final destination at Ranchester, Wyo., about 20 miles away. The fast-moving fire threatened the railroad tie-cutting camp at Rockwood at the head of the Tongue River Box Canyon. For my time, I think re-tracing the trail is more enjoyable then walking along the busy BCC Road.High in the Bighorn Mountains of northern Wyoming, flames crackled through the forest in the dry August heat of 1899. Return the same way or take one of the many side trails down to the Big Cottonwood Road and walk up the road. If continuing, the trail is carved into the cliff side for just a short distance before a more serious bridge wash-out makes for an insurmountable challenge for most. There is an excellent small shaded ravine just before this obstacle that makes a great break spot.
Logs make this easier, but some may wish to turn back here. At the cliff, there is a short vertical wall that must be climbed to continue. When the flume was built, these obstacles were traversed with bridges. There are a handful of side trails that go down to the Big Cottonwood Road or up to cliffs but stay on the flat wide path.Īs the trail nears the cliffs, several gullies are crossed. The cliff face you can see in the distance as you head west is where the trail ends. Navigation is done! From here, head west along the path of the old flume. Follow this first steep climb a short distance to the obvious flat trail that heads west. From the parking area, go up canyon to the gate and old side road climbing steeply up.
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